Investment in content for the theatrical film, TV and streaming markets of India and East Asia amounted to $15.5 billion in 2023, a brand new report shows. But spending slowed to a growth rate of just 4%, a big slowdown compared with the investment peak in 2021-22, driven by COVID.
Media Partners Asia‘s (MPA) 2024 Asia Video Content Dynamics, report which covers India, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, describes the slowdown as “a normalization of budgets and a rationalization of local content investment in streaming VOD.”
India was the strongest-growing market, with a sturdy 12% growth, driven primarily by sports content, while Indonesia followed with a 5% increase. Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand managed modest gains. Malaysia and Vietnam experienced contractions attributable to difficult promoting markets.
Korea and India proceed to dominate the landscape together accounting for 80% of total content investment in 2023. among the many countries covered.
“Korea, a mature market, is anticipated to see flat overall growth, with expansion in streaming and film offset by TV’s secular decline. In contrast, India, with its relatively low 52% TV household penetration, presents significant growth potential across all verticals through 2028,” MPA said, forecasting that India will overtake Korea in total content investment by 2026.
Looking ahead, MPA forecasts a 2.7% compound average growth rate in total content investment across the seven markets, reaching $17.2 billion by 2028. This growth will likely be predominantly driven by India, with Indonesia and the Philippines also expected to point out decent growth rates. Korea and Thailand are anticipated to experience limited growth, while Vietnam faces probably the most challenges attributable to weak TV promoting and rampant piracy.
Free and pay-TV currently account for 64% of the whole investment, but that can drop to 50% in 2028, in accordance with the group’s forecast. Streaming is similarly forecast to grow from 26% to 33% of the pie. Film is forecast as growing marginally to 11%.
“Korean content continues to guide the pack with world-class production values and compelling storytelling, though we’re seeing online original content costs inflate to as much as $7 million per episode. Its extraordinary appeal is obvious, accounting for over 30% of content demand in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The rise of streaming has significantly elevated storytelling and production quality, particularly in Thailand and Indonesia, where competition is intensifying. We’re seeing content from these countries, especially Thai titles, gaining traction across Asia,” said Stephen Laslocky, MPA VP.
“It’s grow to be clear that many traditional TV drama producers are struggling to compete with higher-end streamed video content. In contrast, quality film producers have embraced the pliability of streaming and adapted with greater ease. Over the past 12 months, as some ad revenues have permanently shifted to digital and streaming behavior has grow to be entrenched, we’ve observed TV production margins contracting across most markets. For online originals, streamers have grow to be way more disciplined of their approach to budgeting and content strategy.”
